StatWatch: The New #1 in Quartz

December 3, 2012

Smaller growth trend continues for U.S. quartz-slab shipments. Israel becomes the top shipper for September.

Spain continues to lead in quartz-slab values, besting September 2011 imports by 2.1% — although this September’s $5-million total is a big comedown from May’s spike of $9.4 million. Israel pushes its value to $4.4 in September, up 34.6% from the same time last year; and Canada does a turnaround by gaining 11% from September 2011 with $1.39 million.

U.S. Quartz Slab Imports – Value
(U.S. dollars)

	Sep-12	Sep-11	Change
Spain	$5,031,361	$4,927,518	2.1%
Israel	$4,443,506	$3,302,087	34.6%
Canada	$1,485,613	$1,250,917	18.8%
China	$1,397,164	$1,258,642	11.0%
Italy	$569,128	$1,671,188	-65.9%
India	$404,362	$55,151	633.2%
Vietnam	$178,971	$123,481	44.9%
Korea	$98,332	$80,477	22.2%
Portugal	$92,066	$94,041	-2.1%
Taiwan	$41,804	$0	N/A
Belgium	$30,915	$228,364	-86.5%
Kenya	$18,178	$0	N/A
All Others	$0	$71,495	N/A

Total	$13,791,400	$13,063,361	5.6%

Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

Israel takes charge of September’s quartz-slab import volume, making a 69.2% leap from last year to 535,246 ft². Spain drops to a close second while improving by 11.8% from last September; China remains a solid third. India and Vietnam also keep up the pace.

U.S. Quartz Slab Imports – Volume
(square feet)

	Sep-12	Sep-11	Change
Israel	535,246	316,373	69.2%
Spain	512,308	458,262	11.8%
China	203,438	164,257	23.9%
Canada	110,707	121,514	-8.9%
India	44,347	4,768	830.0%
Italy	28,137	142,654	-80.3%
Vietnam	21,086	16,189	30.3%
Korea	12,056	13,057	-7.7%
Portugal	10,796	11,507	-6.2%
Belgium	3,660	13,961	-73.8%
Kenya	2,573	0	N/A
Taiwan	2,067	0	N/A
All Others	0	5,909	-100.0%

Total	1,486,419	1,268,450	17.2%

Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

StatWatch is a snapshot of U.S. dimensional-stone and hard-surfaces imports, offering a summary and exclusive Stone Update analysis of data from the U.S. International Trade Commission. Comparisons are made mainly to gauge market trends. Analysis is made on import figures of the latest month available.

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